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Jean Cousin, also Jehan Cousin, was a 15th-century French Normand navigator who was said to have discovered the
/ref>''Nooks and corners of the New England coast'' Samuel Adams Drake p.22
/ref> One of his captains was named Martín Alonso Pinzón, Alonzo Pinzón, who left Cousin in a dispute after their return to Dieppe, and who is claimed to have left for Spain from where he advised Columbus on his westward sail.''The English Rediscovery and Colonization of America'' by Marie A. Shipley p.5
/ref> Pinzon is known to have displayed a remarkable confidence in guiding Columbus in his discovery of the New World. No indisputable written records remain however to support Cousin's claim to discovery. Cousin's travel was succeeded by that of Binot Paulmier de Gonneville in 1504 onboard ''L'Espoir'', which was properly recorded and brought back an Indian named Essomericq. Gonneville affirmed that when he visited Brazil, French traders from
Claude Lévi-Strauss: Triste Tropiques
Page 86, Translated to English by John Russell, 1961 {{DEFAULTSORT:Cousin, Jean French explorers French navigators Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact French exploration in the Age of Discovery
Jean Cousin, also Jehan Cousin, was a 15th-century French Normand navigator who was said to have discovered the New World
The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...
in 1488, four years before Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
* lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo
* es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón
* pt, Cristóvão Colombo
* ca, Cristòfor (or )
* la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...
, when he landed in Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
around the mouth of the Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...
.''A savage mirror: power, identity, and knowledge in early modern France'' Michael Wintroub p.2/ref>
/ref> One of his captains was named Martín Alonso Pinzón, Alonzo Pinzón, who left Cousin in a dispute after their return to Dieppe, and who is claimed to have left for Spain from where he advised Columbus on his westward sail.''The English Rediscovery and Colonization of America'' by Marie A. Shipley p.5
/ref> Pinzon is known to have displayed a remarkable confidence in guiding Columbus in his discovery of the New World. No indisputable written records remain however to support Cousin's claim to discovery. Cousin's travel was succeeded by that of Binot Paulmier de Gonneville in 1504 onboard ''L'Espoir'', which was properly recorded and brought back an Indian named Essomericq. Gonneville affirmed that when he visited Brazil, French traders from
Saint-Malo
Saint-Malo (, , ; Gallo: ; ) is a historic French port in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany, on the English Channel coast.
The walled city had a long history of piracy, earning much wealth from local extortion and overseas adventures. In 1944, the Alli ...
and Dieppe
Dieppe (; Norman: ''Dgieppe'') is a coastal commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France.
Dieppe is a seaport on the English Channel at the mouth of the river Arques. A regular ferry service runs to N ...
had already been trading there for several years.''Orientalism in early Modern France'' 2008 Ina Baghdiantz McAbe, p.71''ff'',
The precedent of Jean Cousin and his Normand sailors was used by Charles IX to justify the French attempts at colonizing Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
at Fort Caroline
Fort Caroline was an attempted French colonial settlement in Florida, located on the banks of the St. Johns River in present-day Duval County. It was established under the leadership of René Goulaine de Laudonnière on 22 June, 1564, follow ...
in 1564-65, as, it was said, they had discovered the New World before the Spanish did. The area was called ''"Terre des Bretons"'' by the French.
The claim of Jean Cousin's discovery of the New World has long been reaffirmed in France. In 1660, Etienne Cleirac in ''Us et coustumes de la mer'' emphasized it. The claim is also sometimes reaffirmed in contemporary popular literature.
See also
* France-Americas relations *Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact theories
Pre-Columbian transoceanic contact theories are speculative theories which propose that possible visits to the Americas, possible interactions with the indigenous peoples of the Americas, or both, were made by people from Africa, Asia, Europe, ...
Notes
References
* Ina Baghdiantz McAbe 2008 ''Orientalism in early Modern France'' BergExternal links
Claude Lévi-Strauss: Triste Tropiques
Page 86, Translated to English by John Russell, 1961 {{DEFAULTSORT:Cousin, Jean French explorers French navigators Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact French exploration in the Age of Discovery